Site - mainly front page - too busy: People are put-off and a little intimidated.

I've shown the site to a few people to see if they'd want to join, and they all said the same thing. They think the front page is too busy. There's too many things going on. I'll admit, when I first joined, it took a little longer to navigate and get used to. There's still so much that I haven't seen or done yet, I'm sure. I'm no way trying to put down all of the hard work that's gone into this site. Just a friendly tip from someone who's not having much success bringing people to the community.

Thanks for listening!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sydni Moser on July 27, 2010 at 1:22am

I've been trying to rouse my many atheists 'friends' from facebook to join T/A, and have only had two make the move so far. People are creatures of habit and they are comfy where they are and don't want to expand their network. I know that many would love what goes on in this great site, but they prefer to just keep on where they feel most at home.

I tend to post on Facebook some of the discussions I post here and try to get them interested in the topic enough to check out this site. Oh well, I do what I can.

Permalink Reply by Rachel on July 27, 2010 at 11:05am

I know what you mean about comfort zones. There was a point in time where I didn't use Facebook and only Myspace. I thought FB was too intimiating but I realized the layout was very simple and user friendly. And now I'm quite comfortable using it.

I think if the landing page here weren't so cluttered it would not scare people off so easily. I think that's the main issue here.

Permalink Reply by Allegra on July 27, 2010 at 11:46am

I have to agree with you Rachel! I've invited only a few of my close friends to join and all have been extremely reluctant. I'm not sure if it's because I'm inviting them, or if they are intimidated by all the things going on on the main page. It could be either/or, but it seems safe to assume that the front page is a little too busy. There's so much to see and look at that it could easily be overwhelming.

I hated facebook for a while because I couldn't seem to figure out how everything worked.

Personally, I think the second panel on the page, where it says New to T/A? and the Forum, should be linked to another page. The first panel with people, blogs, groups, etc, is a great place to start and that should be the focus.

Permalink Reply by Morgan Matthew on July 28, 2010 at 1:41pm

Alright I cleaned it up a little bit. What do you all think? Thanks for the suggestions!

Permalink Reply by Rachel on July 28, 2010 at 3:02pm

I definitely see an improvement. I think lumping together the segments that have bigger visual elements near the top of the page, while putting larger areas of text like the blogs down lower makes it a little less scary when the page first loads. :)

Permalink Reply by Sophie on July 29, 2010 at 10:53am